News   Mar 28, 2024
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Harry Stinson is not dead

Did Harry give up on Hamilton and Toronto? What, too many failures here?

More like Hamilton and Toronto has given up on Harry. Too many pies in the skies, and so little results.

A throwback to Harry's vision of a 1000 foot tower in the Hammer from 2008:

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Toronto is booming. So is Hamilton. Buffalo not so much. You really have to wonder...

Buffalo is starting to boom. The past few years has seen more and more developments in and around the downtown. It wasn't that long ago the downtown was a ghost town with empty buildings. That's slowly changing.


 
Buffalo is starting to boom. The past few years has seen more and more developments in and around the downtown. It wasn't that long ago the downtown was a ghost town with empty buildings. That's slowly changing.


The 2020s would be the Buffalo Renaissance (especially from gentrification by ex-Torontonians and others).
 
Buffalo is starting to boom. The past few years has seen more and more developments in and around the downtown. It wasn't that long ago the downtown was a ghost town with empty buildings. That's slowly changing.


It's better than it was, I wouldn't call it booming. The metro region population is still more or less flat in terms of population growth, it's just people and jobs moving around within the metro. All that is happening is mostly abandoned building renovations and a few marginal new construction complexes that hardly result in a "Boom".
 
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It's better than it was, I wouldn't call it booming. The metro region population is still more or less flat in terms of population growth, it's just people and jobs moving around within the metro. All that is happening is mostly abandoned building renovations and a few marginal new construction complexes that hardly result in a "Boom".

Construction booms don't happen overnight. Buffalo is starting to boom. The Tesla Gigafactory has brought a lot of jobs to the area and plans to expand in the city.
 
I would love for it to happen, and I can indeed see it starting to move that way, but it isn't happening yet. I wouldn't even say it's "starting" yet. The metro region dropped over 200,000 people since the peak in 1970, and bottomed out in the 2010 Census. Since then there has been no statistically significant population loss or growth.

Until you see actual positive population and employment growth, Buffalo is treading water. Even that is world's better than 10 years ago when it was sinking quickly.
 
The Tesla Gigafactory has brought a lot of jobs to the area and plans to expand in the city.

The Tesla factory is a mess. Major write-off recently and the planned jobs are unlikely to happen.
 
I think treading water is an appropriate description of the situation in Buffalo right now. From my last visit a couple years ago, the overall vibe I got was that on the surface the city has strong and often enviable bones in historical architecture. However, going deeper into the urban fabric and you can tell the city can often feel like an empty shell. There's a couple of decent areas like Allentown and Elmwood Village and pockets of lively restaurants/breweries scattered around, but the vast majority of the city felt dead.

You can literally stroll down Main Street Buffalo (where Shea's Theatre is) on a weekend, and be among the pedestrians you can count on one hand walking around. Same goes for the Metro Rail, I remember being among maybe a dozen or so commuters on the whole train on a weekend taking it to go downtown. Even though they have multiple colleges and universities in the city, it felt incredibly un-college-town like. There's no prominent industry to attract skilled workers in large numbers. Everything that's interesting felt really niche and grassroots, but without traction. I personally like Buffalo as an urban specimen, but right now with how things are going, I'd say an area in Toronto like Lawrence West & Weston Road may have just as much or more developments recently completed or in the pipeline.
 
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The Tesla factory is a mess. Major write-off recently and the planned jobs are unlikely to happen.
It surprises me that some people are still buying into Tesla. The company seems to just be a neverending stream of bad news, delays, and safety violations.
 
It surprises me that some people are still buying into Tesla. The company seems to just be a neverending stream of bad news, delays, and safety violations.

You have to realize that while other companies exist to turn a profit, Tesla simply isn't bound by those rules; Tesla can do no wrong. There's significant pent up demand for electric vehicles, and government as well as stock holder handouts continue to drive the company despite all the red tape. Every time a new quarterly statement comes out, Elon runs to the washroom to grab a piece of paper to draw his latest 'invention'. Reserve now for only $10k! Release date: Unknown! Actual specifications: Unknown! But it'll do 0-100 in 1 nanosecond and have a range of 1 quadrillion kilometers! It's a similar story with SpaceX; people like to rely on someone they think can do the impossible. Just don't mention the growing pile of unfulfilled promises or you'll be vehemently opposed by fans of this new age cleric.
 
More evidence that Harry Stinson is not dead:
 

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